Brother-sister duo helps San Ramon Valley sweep EBAL swim titles

By Stephanie Hammon shammon@bayareanewsgroup.com

Posted:
05/10/2014 06:45:33 PM PDT

Updated:
05/10/2014 08:12:53 PM PDT

LIVERMORE -- Heidi Poppe helped put the finishing touches on another team title for the San Ramon Valley High girls swim team at Saturday's East Bay Athletic League championships, winning the 100-yard breaststroke in a meet record time.

Then, she watched her younger brother Hank accomplish the exact same feat for the Wolves' boys team.

The Poppe siblings were responsible for two of the eight meet records attained at Robert Livermore Community Center and scored major team points as the Wolves claimed the boys and girls titles for a third straight year.

Heidi, a Stanford-bound senior, broke a five-year-old meet record in 1:00.51. Hank, a sophomore, eclipsed a six-year-old mark in 56.34 seconds in their breaststroke sweep.

"My brother and I are really close, so it's really fun to watch him swim fast," Heidi said. "I've been swimming with him for a long time and we've always swam the same stuff and had competitions to see who could go the fastest."

Rooney won the boys 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke for Granada, which edged Monte Vista for second place in the team standings. The sophomore also competed on the Matadors' 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams that set new meet records.

"He's the type of person you want to have on your team," Granada coach Julian Avilla said of Rooney. "He's incredibly supportive, incredibly understanding and an ultimate team guy. Not only can he swim pretty much everything there is to offer, but he's also willing to swim anything."

Advertisement

Murphy won the 200 freestyle and set a meet record in winning the 50 freestyle with a finish of 23.59, just edging Poppe who also went under the previous record.

Sean Bloore provided the top highlights for Monte Vista's boys team. Swimming out of lane one in the 100 freestyle final, he edged the Granada duo of Trent Trump and Nick Silverthorn in a tight finish and helped the Mustangs' 200 freestyle relay team stage a comeback against rival San Ramon Valley to win the race by 0.06 seconds.